This study compared the functions of labor unions between a sample of contract workers and full-time salaried workers, based on survey questionnaires. First, it examined the manner in which full-time salaried workers and contract workers were engaged with labor unions. According to the study's findings, labor union membership rate of contract workers was lower than that of full-time salaried workers. In addition, although the full-time salaried workers and contract workers equally voiced their opinions and made requests to their superiors, when the contract workers joined labor unions, they communicated through their union representatives. Second, the effects of labor unions on full-time salaried workers and contract workers were analyzed. Among the full-time salaried workers, the effects of both labor unions and union members on employment security were statistically positive, whereas other effects were statistically non-significant. Meanwhile, the effects of other systems on wages, jobs, and human relations in companies without labor unions were also positive. Third, among the contract workers, the effects of union members on employment security were statistically positive, whereas the effects of labor unions on wages and jobs were statistically positive. In sum, the effects of labor unions on contract workers were greater than those on full-time salaried workers. Despite this finding, there are two possible reasons for the limited number of contract workers to join labor unions. The first reason is that contract workers have a greater incentive to leave a company compared to their full-time salaried counterparts; the second reason is that contract workers are used to consulting their superiors, instead of union representatives.

This paper revealed how the top managers learned cognitively from the events experienced through the career system of their company and the difference of the learning methods between top managers and the employees who were not ones though they had once been nominated as the candidates. In addition, it identified that top managers utilized the different ways of cognitive learning methods according to the traits of the carrier experiences regarding personnel transfer whether characteristics of new jobs had strong interdependency with previous ones or not.

The past research have approached this theme with the two different ways; one adopted the event-lesson framework and the other employed the economic analysis based on the cost-benefit comparison for personnel transfers within a firm. This article pointed out the problems of the two approaches, and, it, therefore, investigated the relationship between the career experiences and the lessons from them with the “event-cognitive learning-lesson” framework.

The interview research was conducted in 2006 to the 20 employees who were candidates of the top management members of the large and listed Japanese company at that time. And 8 years later, 11 of them became the directors of the holding company or its two main business companies.

The following discussion indicates that these findings imply these three things. First, ther is the need of introducing “event-cognitive learning-lesson” framework to future researches. The framework will give the more precise explanation the way employees learn from their career events proactively. Second, the tendency of cognitive learning employees conduct may be one of the important determinants for mastering the requisite knowledge and abilities for top managers. Finally, there is necessity of the modification of the economic theory on the rational width of personnel transfer and its function for the development of top managers.

The limitation of this research and the further direction of research were also indicated.

Health and productivity management is a method of strategic of employees' healthcare to achieve greater wellbeing and improve performance. The research focuses on the implementation of health and productivity management system in Japan and its effects on Human Resource Management from the insurer's viewpoint. The health insurer reviewed in the study provides medical insurance to employees in small enterprises. The insurer promotes health and productivity management aimed at reducing medical costs and claims. This ultimately has a positive effect on insurance premiums when insurers pass on the benefits to small enterprises. This research revealed that a collaborative approach between insurers and enterprises may be beneficial for promoting employees' healthcare in small enterprises. The study demonstrates that when the management is better aware of healthcare, Human Resource Management is effective and can have a positive impact on productivity.

The study and the medical insurance considered are limited to Hiroshima Prefecture's situation. It does not consider the actual cases of health and productivity management in small enterprises in the main paper under limitations. This leaves many challenges for the future.

The current workplace has changed due to the individualization of work, the diversification of employment patterns and ways of working, and the values of workers, which has reduced the original functions of the workplace, such as collaboration and human resource development. Organizational development is to create a centripetal force in an organization that tends to be a group of disparate individuals.

Revisions to the HR system are perceived by employees as non-compliance with psychological contracts and can reduce employee organizational satisfaction and performance, as well as increase intent and intention to leave. In order to create a HR system that does not cause a backlash from employees, it is necessary to explain the reasons for the revision of the system and to be transparent about the process of creation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of constructing the HR system in Nursery School Y and to consider how the approach of organizational development and the construction of the HR system influenced each other. Then, it is presented as one of the methods of constructing the HR system. In Y, we introduced an organizational development approach to the process of constructing the HR system and aimed to integrate both the hard aspects of the organization (the HR system) and the soft aspects of the organization (people and relationships) such as collaboration, trust and influence relationships, organizational climate and culture.

We conducted two workshops with all staff participation in the process of constructing the HR system, shared organizational values and childcare views to deepen mutual understanding, and created a “check sheet for self-growth”. We also had a committee where everyone could participate to discuss and build consensus on what evaluation should be and how it should be reflected in wages.

In the process of constructing the HR system, I not only implemented Future Search, a method of organizational development, but also intervened by focusing on the 4 values of organizational development (humanistic philosophy, democratic principles, client-centered consulting, and socialecological system orientation) in all aspects of the process.

As a result, painful wage changes to staff were accepted by staff and no negative actions have occurred since the introduction of the new system. In addition, the self-innovation ability has been enhanced, and the system has been operated autonomously while improving the system even after the introduction.

In this case study, it is suggested that the approach of organizational development increases the congruence between the hard aspect of the organization, the HR system, and the soft aspect, the awareness of the working people. It is presented that by introducing an organizational development approach to HR system construction, which has been emphasizing system design, it is possible to cover human aspects that have tended to be lacking, and to make the transition to the new system without degrading the functioning of the organization.